Gary Gibbon
Child benefit expectations too high for Treasury
Channel 4 News political Editor Gary Gibbon asks if the government can afford to change its child benefit plans?
-
Budget 2012 – top tax rate cut to 45p
Chancellor George Osborne cuts the 50p rate of tax to 45p from April 2013 and announces changes to his plans to withdraw child benefit from all 40p taxpayers.
-
Budget child benefit Q&A: what are the changes?
As George Osborne announces changes to child benefit, Channel 4 News explains what it means for you.
-
Gary Gibbon
-
Gary Gibbon
Child Benefit – Osborne wants to keep it simple
A lot of pre-Budget kite-flying going on. Always a danger that you raise expectations with exercises like that and then find you can’t deliver on them. On child benefit, the Treasury seems to be looking at a number of ways of ameliorating the child benefit removal for 40 per cent tax payers. All of them look pretty expensive. The plan is to have something ready to announce in the Budget on 21 March.
-
Families ‘better on benefits’, admits minister
Some couples will be hundreds of pounds better off if they quit their jobs and stay on benefits, Chris Grayling admits.
-
Nursery care costs rise as tax credits fall
A childcare charity’s survey finds childcare costs up almost six per cent, as it calls on the government to scrap changes to child tax credits which it says could push some families into poverty.
-
Government wins three welfare votes so far
The government has overturned three of the seven amendments to its welfare bill proposed by the House of Lords last week. Further votes, including one on a benefits cap, are due later today.
-
Osborne stands by child benefit cuts
After David Cameron’s warning of a child benefit “cliff edge”, Chancellor George Osborne confirms he will cut the benefit for higher-rate taxpayers but may change details, as Michael Crick reports.
-
‘Scandal’ of nearly 1 million empty UK homes
As Channel 4 begins a series highlighting the 2 million families who lack adequate housing while nearly 1 million homes lie empty, a charity tells Channel 4 News the government ‘could do more.’
-
Can society afford not to fix ‘broken families’?
As the NSPCC calls on cash-strapped councils to act earlier to help 200,000 babies born each year at risk of neglect, Channel 4 News follows three families who have benefitted from early intervention.
-
Benefits for offenders targeted by Cameron
Courts are to be given powers to strip criminals of up to £25 of their benefits payouts per week, in a move designed to hit back at many rioters who rampaged throughout England in August.
-
Poverty to rise and income to fall, says IFS
Middle incomes will fall by 7 per cent and a quarter of Britain’s children will be living in poverty by 2013, says a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
-
Quarter of parents in debt over childcare
Almost a quarter of parents, regardless of income, say the cost of childcare in the UK has caused them to get into debt, a new study finds.
-
‘Worse-off Wednesday’: tax changes come into force
The start of the new tax year has been dubbed “worse-off Wednesday”. One tax expert tells Channel 4 News many families will be worse-off in 2011 but not because of these changes.
-
Benefits reform: ‘biggest shake-up for 60 years’
The Government unveils its Welfare Bill, hailing it as the biggest reform of the benefits system since its inception. But Channel 4 News hears from people who remain worried by the changes.
